JEDDAH, 24 November 2004 — Forty-three countries and several international organizations will attend the first global anti-terror conference in Riyadh from Feb. 5-8, a senior Foreign Ministry official said. “We have invited all countries that have suffered from terrorism to the conference and all have agreed to take part,” said Prince Turki ibn Muhammad, assistant undersecretary for political affairs at the ministry, Al-Riyadh Arabic daily reported.

The conference aims at exchanging information and experience and fostering cooperation in the fight against terrorism. It will also address measures to help tackle money laundering as well as drug and arms smuggling.

Prince Turki said Israel’s obstinacy in dealing with the Palestinian issue as well as the international community’s apathy to the issue had contributed to the spread of violence and terrorism in the Middle East. He said the international community had begun recognizing Saudi Arabia’s firm stand against terrorism and had commended its efforts in combating terrorism at both national and international levels.

Assistant Foreign Minister Nizar Madani said the conference would contribute to “eradicating the roots and causes of this dangerous phenomenon.”

The Kingdom has stepped up its campaign to stamp out terrorism after a series of bombings and shootings across the country which have killed nearly 100 people and injured more than 200 others.

In a related development, Brig. Mansour Al-Turki, spokesman at the Interior Ministry, denied press reports that two suspected terrorists arrested in Jeddah last month had “confessed” to killing a French engineer in September.

“The report carried by Okaz Arabic daily today (Tuesday) about the confession made by Hamad Al-Saadi about the killing of Laurent Barbot, a 45-year-old French worker in Jeddah, falls short of accuracy,” the spokesman said, adding that investigations into the incident had not yet been completed.

Barbot, who worked as a technical assistant for the French electronics group, Thales, was shot twice with an automatic rifle and found dying at the wheel of his car on Sept. 26.

Quoting security sources, Okaz named one of the arrested suspects as Al-Saadi and the second only by his family name of Al-Sameery, and said the pair had “confessed to the crime” of killing Barbot.

It said Saadi, described as the head of the Al-Jamia cell named after a neighborhood in Jeddah, carried out the murder while Sameery was in charge of plotting and preparing the killing.